Old Testament - Jewish History

cello, here is a link to the Torah.

http://www.chabad.org/search/keyword_cdo/kid/1199/jewish/Torah.htm

If your looking for an ancient historian's account, check out Flavius Josephus' The Jewish Wars, and Antiquities of the Jews.

Thanks Letty. But isn't the Torah a religious book again?

Thanks InfraBlue. Yes, that is more historical to me. I wonder what the Jewish children learn as history in school.

Does anyone know Jewish "history"? I would just like to have an idea whether there is a difference with the Old Testament, out of curiosity, I don't really want to study Jewish history.

The Torah is the Bible.

As for Jewish history, well, the problem is that it's all wrapped up in myths and legends. If you're looking for books you're not going to get much farther back than the time of the Romans or so, unless you look in the Torah. Which isn't necessarily wrong, but it's just got everything else stuffed into it as well, kind of a one-stop shopping site for legends, religion, genealogy and possibly history.

Was there a flood? Sure, there are always floods. Ask any insurance company and they'll tell you that floods can occur anywhere. Was it the BIG flood, as in Noah, etc.? Who knows? The story is probably allegorical and meant to show a separation of the believers from the non.

Were there wars? Sure, there are always wars. What about Jericho, or any other time the Jews went to battle? Who knows? Again, it may be allegory although it's likely that if a nomadic people were trying to settle in a new land that the original inhabitants would be mighty pissed.

And so it goes.

Dead sea scrolls may or may not be useful but they are generally religious texts. Archaeology is helpful but for a nomadic people that's very hard as they wouldn't leave much behind in terms of artifacts.

What about Egypt? Was there slavery there? Absolutely. That's how stuff got built way back when, and the Egyptians did a lot of building, and not just of pyramids but also of temples, storehouses, palaces, etc. Were the Jews the ones who did the building? Maybe. What about the slave revolt, a la Moses? Well, chances are that there were slave revolts of some sort, as being a builder slave wasn't exactly a happy existence for anyone. After that, it gets murky.

Unfortunately, the whole thing is rather murky.

That's very helpful, Jespah, thank you.